Chapter 584: The Witch in the Sleeping Woods
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 584: The Witch in the Sleeping Woods
A human silhouette inside a meat fruit? That’s odd. This isn't the Primate Floor. Nor is it the one above. There's no way a person would be on a branch where hoofed animals grow.
What is it, then? I should open it and see. I took out a card and tore at the fruit's skin. Being a meat fruit, its skin was as tough as leather, but I was once renowned as a master pickpocket in my prime. The card slipped into a gap and sliced the skin open with ease. A juice resembling amniotic fluid trickled out.
This fruit was supposed to contain a cow. I felt a presence inside. I reached into the torn rind and my hand closed around someone's ankle.
“Heave-ho.”
Instead of a cow, I pulled out a human who had been sleeping inside the fruit.
It was a woman, bundled up from head to toe. Beneath a thick cloak, her shirt was buttoned up tight. A few strands of violet hair peeked out from under a large witch's hat, big enough to swallow her whole head. The witch, who had a small and delicate air about her, was fast asleep, completely unaware of my presence.
This isn't a person who grew here, right? A living person just crawled inside, didn't they?
“Mmm, mumble…”
The Regressor noticed the sleep-talking witch and asked, “Who is that?”
“Uh, well…”
As for who this person sleeping in such a strange place was…
‘Thanks for lending me your body, Pero. You can rest now. Alright, shall we begin our ecological study of the King of Humans? Let's see... The King of Humans isn't in his room yet? Where could he have gone? He has nowhere else to go.’
It was the Great Witch.
The Great Witch, who sees the world and communicates through her familiars, keeps her real body hidden while she focuses on controlling them. This is to protect her main body, which is left defenseless during that time. It would be hard to imagine her body was inside a meat fruit, and even if one knew, how could they possibly find it among so many?
“She's a witch. Looks like she was just looking for a place to sleep.”
What a random encounter. It would be suspicious if I saw through the Great Witch's identity right away, so for now, I'll just call her a witch. The Regressor gazed at the soundly sleeping witch, glanced around, and then suddenly spoke.
“You came here to meet her?”
“Huh?”
“You came straight to this specific fruit out of all the others, didn't you? Don't you have some business with that witch?”
“…”
“What? Don't tell me you're going to say it was a coincidence.”
“No, of course not.”
Well, she's right. I came here because I felt a strange thought on the way down. The Regressor has sharp instincts.
“No wonder. I was wondering why you suddenly said your arm hurt.”
“It really does hurt, you know. And you think you're as light as a feather? Are you that delusional?”
“That's not what I meant! You have regenerative powers!”
As we bickered, the witch, sensing the noise, mumbled and furrowed her brow.
‘I can hear the King of Humans' voice. Is he outside? No. The sound is close. As if he's right next to me. Huh?’
Sensing an unusual presence, the Great Witch's eyes flew open. Our eyes met. She looked back and forth between me and the fruit she had been lying in, her mouth moving wordlessly as if terrified.
“Ah, ahh, ah!”
Upon seeing me, the Great Witch flinched violently, as if she'd seen a monster. The Regressor chided me.
“You completely scared her.”
“That's because you have such a menacing face, Shei-ssi.”
“Nonsense! She can't even see my face from that angle!”
“So you admit you have a menacing face.”
“It's still better than your terrible conduct!”
“Huh? What's wrong with my conduct?”
“When you think about it, you're the one who dragged a sleeping person out of her bed! Of course she'd be scared!”
I doubt it. Someone of the Great Witch's caliber wouldn't be afraid of getting hurt. She's an Elder, after all. Her body would regenerate even if it were crushed in her sleep, and she commands countless familiars and uses horrific black magic without any risk. She is a being to be feared, not one who feels fear.
There's only one reason someone like her would be scared. She's simply afraid of people.
In other words, the Great Witch has social anxiety.
“Hello?”
“…D-don't come any closer. You're disgusting. I'll kill you.”
“Excuse me?”
See? She doesn't actually perceive me as a threat. She's just scared of interacting with people.
Despite her hesitation, the Great Witch spat out the harsh words, pulling her collar tight as she slowly backed away.
‘Agh. You scared me. I went somewhere no one could ever find me, so how did you know I was here? Is this a power of the King of Humans?’
“I sensed a presence from afar, so I came to check it out. I'm quite sensitive to the presence of people. I saw a person in a fruit that's supposed to grow a cow, so I was curious if you were dead or trapped.”
“Th-th-that's... meddling in things that don't concern you…”
“Is that so? Then you can go back inside.”
“…Never mind.”
‘It's been proven that hiding is useless against the King of Humans... Huh? But does the King of Humans know who I am?’
Why? Shouldn't he? I'm completely covered up, but we've met before, haven't we? It's not like he has face blindness, so how could he not know…
‘But I'm wearing the treasure of Manguo, Agartha's Mask. Don't tell me the King of Humans can see through a mask that changes one's appearance?’
You have one of those too?!
I glanced over at the Regressor. Despite having met the Great Witch when she arrived on an elephant, the Regressor showed no sign of recognizing her now. She only perceived her as a 'witch' based on her hat and clothes.
If I were to recognize the Great Witch here, it would be the same as admitting I saw through the Regressor's disguise as a man from the very beginning. Should I just reveal everything? But if I do that…
“By the way, is it okay for a witch to be all alone here? The other witches seemed busy working on the Primate Floor.”
Ah, screw it. I'll just pretend I don't know. It's much easier that way.
‘He doesn't know! Agartha's Mask, a perfect blend of truth, goodness, and beauty, can even deceive the King of Humans! At this rate, I might even be able to visit the elephant graveyard!’
The Great Witch seemed a little excited that I was playing dumb. Normally, she would have turned away out of shyness and timidity, but her improved mood made her willing to play along.
“Uh, uh, umm. I-I'm the Great Witch's… favorite apprentice…”
“If you're her favorite apprentice, shouldn't you be working even harder?”
“…Never mind. The Great Witch… and I specialize in non-humans, not humans. We leave all the human-related matters to Walpurgis…”
“Walpurgis?”
“She's a legendary witch who was once called the Witch of the Night… She creates pleasure and illusions, trapping people so they can't distinguish between dream and reality.”
So that's the person who was attending to the Great Witch. She was always running errands. I guess she's more impressive than I thought. Then again, you'd have to be, to serve the Great Witch.
“By non-humans, you mean beasts, right?”
“Y-yes. Beasts, and also plants and trees.”
“Perfect timing. Could you be our guide?”
“A-a guide?”
“To somewhere important. All I see here are these eerie beast-fruits.”
“For that, you'll have to go to a lower floor than the Animal Floor… to the Plant Floor. There's a village there…”
“A village? There's a village on the World Tree?”
The World Tree is as massive as a hill. But that doesn't mean it's as habitable as one.
No matter how large, the World Tree is still fundamentally a tree. Its branches are whipped by fierce winds, and its falling leaves are infinitely more threatening than raindrops. One would have to live with the constant risk of falling to their death.
Most importantly, you can't farm on a tree. To get food, you'd have to transport it from the fields in the World Tree's shade, where the sun shines properly.
I could see druids in training or people living in simple shelters, but not an entire village.
“…Yes. On the Tree of Genesis, um, crops grow… No, they fruit. On the Tree of Genesis, uh, umm…”
The Great Witch, struggling to explain the complex concept, scratched her head over her hat. She looked back and forth between me and the Regressor several times before falling into deep thought.
‘When I conduct an ecological study of wolves, I synchronize with wolves. When I study parrots, I synchronize with parrots. So, to study the King of Humans, I should synchronize with a human… I'll just think of this body as another familiar. That way, it'll be less… disgusting.’
This is closer to misanthropy than social anxiety. For the Great Witch, just traveling with people seemed to be a monumental decision.
“…I'll show you. Follow me.”
“Yes. Please lead the way.”
The moment I took a step to follow her, the Great Witch covered her mouth and gagged.
“Ugh. Don't come so close.”
“What am I supposed to do? She's just like you, Shei-ssi.”
“I'm not that bad!”
Moving away from me, the Great Witch broke off a twig from the meat fruit. She snapped off six in total. Holding the leafless twigs tightly, she pulled a parrot feather from her pocket and stuck one into each branch. With her catalyst complete, the Great Witch chanted an incantation and thrust the twigs into the side of the meat fruit.
“Leaf of the parrot. Wing bone of the World Tree. Fin in the air. With that which is of the earth, the right to swim the sky.”
After finishing her muttered spell, the witch pulled on the twigs she had inserted.
“Grrrnnn…!”
After pulling with all her might for a moment, the twig had transformed into a giant wing. The branch had become a solid frame, and instead of leaves, it was now covered in lush parrot feathers. The Great Witch held out six wings to us.
“Put this… on your shoulder.”
“These are wings? They look like they'll fall right off.”
“If you press it to your skin… roots will come out…”
She spoke so well through her parrot, but face-to-face, it was like she had an illness. The Great Witch, her words trailing off, decided to demonstrate, pressing the base of a wing to her own shoulder.
The moment the cut end of the branch touched her shoulder, roots sprouted from it and wrapped firmly around her. The Great Witch flapped the wing herself and glanced at me.
“…See?”
And with that, without another word, she leaped off. Clutching her clothes and hat, the Great Witch flew toward a branch far below. It was more of a glide than true flight, but the wings flapped and moved on their own, steering her.
“It seems they're not just simple gliders.”
I could feel a vibrant life force pulsing from the wings. To think she could transform the branches of the World Tree and a parrot's feathers into wings. The Great Witch's magic certainly has its own mysteries.
The Regressor approached me and said, “Let's follow her. A witch we can actually talk to is a rare find. We might get some good clues.”
“She doesn't seem like much of a talker.”
“You're good at getting along with people who have poor social skills, aren't you? Go on. It's a chance to use your talent.”
“True. I did manage to become friends with you, Shei-ssi.”
“Am I the poster child for people with poor social skills?!”
‘Still, he thinks of us as friends… I'm glad.’
Make up your mind, are you going to be offended or touched? Anyway, I pressed a wing to my shoulder. Roots instantly grew and wrapped around it. When I lifted my arm slightly, the wing fluttered. It wasn't completely random; it seemed to react to the movement of my shoulder blade.
“Alright, now for this wing… oh.”
I was about to attach it to the Regressor's shoulder when I saw her arms, tightly bound in bandages, and frowned. If she can't use her arms, attaching wings would just make her plummet.
The Regressor noticed my predicament and said, “Hmm. I wonder if this will work.”
“If your arms were detached, I could just stick them on the stumps. A shame.”
“Don't say such horrible things. And you can't hold a sword with wings.”
“I don't think holding a sword is the main issue here.”
I tried this way and that, but nothing worked. I had no choice. I took the wing meant for the Regressor and pressed it to my own waist. As I felt the roots take hold near my hip, I grabbed the Regressor from behind.
“Kgh, ugh.”
‘I really don't want to get used to this!’
The Regressor, perhaps used to it by now, didn't react much, though she did have a sour look on her face. With her dangling from my arms, I spread my wings and leaped.